Raynham officials fear quality of life will erode with casino as neighbor

By Tim Faulkner

Wednesday

Jul 25, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 25, 2007 at 9:22 AM

RAYNHAM - According to Raynham town leaders, a casino in Middleboro is not a welcome development.

According to Raynham town leaders, a casino in Middleboro is not a welcome development.

“We’re a small town, we’d be getting all the adverse effects and none of the positive effects of a casino,” Selectmen Chairman John Donahue said. “We’re all concerned about the spillover effect.”

The spillover, Donahue said, would be the problems created by casino patrons and employees traveling through, as well as moving to, Raynham and surrounding areas.
Increased traffic and crime, as well as demand for town services, fire protection, and education would diminish the quality of life for residents.

“I see all of the bad with the casino and not any of the good,” he said.

Selectman Donald L. McKinnon agreed that there are a lot of costs for Raynham, but no benefits.

“It would change the chemistry of the local community. It would affect all of the services in the area,” he said.

At Tuesday’s Selectmen meeting, McKinnon referred to a map of Middleboro and the surrounding area that showed the location of the proposed casino.

“Raynham is closer to the casino than 80 percent of Middleboro,” he said, noting that Routes 495 and 44 in Raynham, and Route 18 in Bridgewater will receive the brunt of traffic to the casino.

Secondary roads will be busier, too, McKinnon said.

“The people that support the casino will come from far away, and they’ll be taking shortcuts,” he said.

There’s not much town officials can do to influence the process, McKinnon said. “We feel something like this is completely out of our hands.”

A share of the casino’s tax revenue could pay for the cost of additional police patrols and fire and rescue services, but money may not be enough to replace the character of a community.

“I’m not sure if any financial compensation could justify the change in quality of life,” Donahue said, who believes the parts of Raynham closest to Middleboro would suffer the most. “I don’t think we’d ever get the quality of life back down there.”

In letters sent to Gov. Deval Patrick and state Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, Town Administrator Randall Buckner asked for financial support to pay for the demands on public safety services.

“Motor vehicle accidents and crime both increased substantially in communities abutting the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos,” Buckner stated in the letter.

“Additional costs have been documented for schools and social services related to new casino employees and their families moving to nearby municipalities.”

Selectman Joseph Pacheco did some homework over the weekend talking to elected officials in the towns surrounding the Foxwoods casino.

“The biggest effect in Connecticut was the traffic,” Pacheco said at Tuesday night’s selectmen’s meeting.

Pacheco reported that in Ledyard, Ct., the casino’s host community, traffic on secondary roads jumped 300 percent after the Foxwoods casino opened; 10,000-12,000 commuter passed through the town on their way to work at Foxwoods; and local gas prices increased by 10-12 cents per gallon.

Pacheco said a town official compared local traffic to the congestion around Fenway Park before a baseball game between the Red Sox and the Yankees, lasting 24 hours a day.

He also noted that crowds at casino tended to spend their time and money on the casinos rather than supporting local businesses.

Middleboro Selectman Adam M. Bond said the community surrounding Mohegan Sun is a better example of a casino’s impact.

“They (Ledyard) didn’t do it right because the town fought it coming in,” Bond said.
Rather than resist the development of a casino in Middleboro, Bond suggested that leaders in the nearby communities perform impact studies and petition state officials for additional of the tax revenue.

But, in the end, Bond said he supports a casino because it’s best for his constituents.

“I represent Middleboro, I don’t represent Raynham,” he said. “They didn’t ask me about their development. All I’m saying, sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander.”
Chris Carney, manager at the Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park, said a casino in Middleboro would be a loser for Raynham and the dog track.

“It’s like having a McDonald’s and selling hamburgers for free,” Carney said of the loss of royalties and taxes paid to the state and town. “We’ve been here for a million years being good and these guys come along.” He said the Connecticut casinos have hurt business as chartered bus trips from the Taunton area have diverted patrons to the big gambling resorts.

“We got our business cut in half when Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun opened up,” he said.

He hopes the state will favor expanding the existing gaming venues instead of permitting a new facility in Middleboro.

“We don’t want the casino, we want the slot the machines,” Carney said, referring to a bill submitted by state Rep. David Flynn, to permit slot machines and poker tables at the four racetracks in Massachusetts.

A similar bill, sponsored by Flynn, was defeated by the House of Representatives in April of 2006.

But the proposed Middleboro casino has given Flynn’s bill more consideration from lawmakers.

The gaming revenue would guarantee funds for Raynham, as well as surrounding communities. Selectman Pacheco favors a similar policy for the proposed casino.

“If it were to come to Middleboro, we would want to have a seat at the table to make sure Raynham is protected,” said Pacheco, who represented Raynham at the casino forum in Lakeville on Wednesday. “We’re looking for a piece of the pie.”

Tim Faulkner of The Taunton (Mass.) Gazette can be reached at tfaulkner@tauntongazette.com.